To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Contribution of fundamental brain networks to individual differences in social cognition

Humans are a social species; our ability to function in a diverse range of social environments is indispensable to our livelihood. Although a large range of individual differences in social cognitive ability has been described in clinical and typically-developed populations, our understanding of the neurophysiological sources of individual differences in social cognition is incomplete. Taking the viewpoint that across-individual variances in social behavioral tendencies are the manifestations of differences in baseline and task-related functional properties of fundamental information-processing neural networks, this manuscript presents a series of experiments that aim to characterize the extent to which functional properties of basic brain networks can explain individual differences across a number of traits. The results of these experiments show that functional properties of the default network, the somatosensory network, and the emotion processing network predict several socially-relevant traits. Taken together, these findings support the view that our unique propensities during social interactions are guided by the inherent functional properties of one’s brain. In addition, these results highlight the importance of taking a network-level approach toward characterizing brain-behavior relationships.

The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.